The Best Drysuit For Me?

[moto_209]

Hey all,
I am looking at purchasing a drysuit here within the next couple of weeks. I have never dived with one.
Here is a little about me.

Mostly dive Monterey, CA
Soon to be DiveMaster next month
I want to have a suit that is versitile for everything that I may want to do, tech, Instrucor (maybe), and just having fun with the crew.

Any help and thoughts would be great, also I have been interested in Whites Fusion. It sounds great and looks great. Any other companies who i should look at?

 

[RonFrank]

I dive a Bare Nexgen, mainly because I got it used, and cheap!

Bare makes good drysuits, and so do Viking, Whites, Pinnacle, OMS, USIA, DUI, Hollis, etc. Honestly, I've seen a lot of different drysuits over the years, and most are very well made, durable, and designed to last.

So the main issue is fit. If you are an easy fit body type, than pick a material, and find a suit that meets your needs at the lowest possible price! Material could be trilam, Neoprene, crushed Neoprene, Mixsuits, Bi-lam, whatever.

I like trilam suits, but they may not be as tough as Neoprene. If you dive around rocks, or do a lot of shore entries, you may choose a suit that is heavier for that reason. My suit is back zip, which means someone must help me zip it up. I always dive with buddies, so no issue there, but a front entry would be nicer, and more expensive.

Seals are either Latex, Neoprene, or a combination. I've never dove Neoprene seals. But some like them over latex, and others do not. They may last longer vs. latex, but I really do not know for sure. You may also choose to go with a DUI with user replaceable seals. That seems like a cool idea, but as I do not own own, I'm not sure if there are drawbacks. For what DUI charges for the parts, I can get the seals replaced in my drysuit, but it would be cool to have the option to do it during a trip. The ONE piece of gear most of us have no backup for is our drysuit, and in fact I tore a neck seal on my last outing, and froze diving wet the rest of the trip.

You may get better responses from those that dive in your area as they are more aware of your entries/exits, and hazards UW. Trilam suits are comfortable, lightweight, and durable, but may not be the best choice for jagged rock entries. I dive a Bi-lam suit, but that is just because I got a great deal on it, and after 100 dives, it's likely the best $350 I ever spent, and that came with undergarments!

You can shop this online, or shop it at a local store, or talk to your buddies! If you need a custom suit, well, get ready to spend some bucks, and I guess that holds true in any event. Drysuits are not generally inexpensive.

 

[moto_209]

Ron,
So far thanks for the info. I am starting to talk to the LDS about the suits, but as usual we get off topic talking about other cool interesting things. I start me rescue on thursday so hopefully i can keep on track and pick there minds.

 

[TSandM]

I've had a Mobby's trilam, a Diving Concepts compressed neo, and a Fusion. I love my Fusion. In fact, when mine is unavailable, I dive my HUSBAND's Fusion rather than either of my other two suits.

There are two things a dry suit really needs to do. It needs to fit you pretty well, so there isn't a huge amount of extra material flapping around and trapping air, and it needs to allow you enough mobility to do anything you need or want to do underwater. Unfortunately, the two things are somewhat incompatible. If a laminate suit is cut very close to the body, it will often restrict your mobility. If a compressed neo suit is well cut, it will still be less flexible and hard to stretch. The Fusion manages both at the same time -- it's cut with lots of extra fabric, but the skin over the inner bag keeps it compressed around your body, so you don't have a huge air bubble to manage, and the suit is sleek and slips through the water like a wetsuit. And you have nearly the mobility of a wetsuit, too. Plus the suit is forgiving of weight changes (note that I can dive my husbands, and he has managed to get into mine, too). It's well priced, too.

The one thing a few people have found with the Fusion is that the arms and legs may be cut a little tight for very thick undergarments. I think you can solve that by buying a size larger than you think you need.

 

[dannobee]

Welcome to the warm side.

You probably can't go wrong with any of the modern drysuits, although the uncompressed neoprene ones would on the bottom of my list. If you're doing lots of shore entries south of Point Lobos, you'd probably want a compressed neoprene suit or something easy to patch. The TLS-350 wouldn't be my first choice in that case.

Fit is everything, and keep in mind that you'll be diving thick undergarments. If you saunter into the store and try one on, be sure to have more than street clothes on underneath.

And if you're anything like the rest of us, you'll end up with three or four sets of underwear, costing as much or more than the drysuit. And get one of Cricket's 12mm hoods, too.

 

[BradDB]

See if you can rent a suit or two prior to buying. You'll most likely need to complete an intro to drysuits (pool session) prior to being allowed to rent. You'll need the skills anyway. My wife and I did this ten years ago at MBDC. If you do the class there you'll be able suit up in-store and walk across the street to Metridium Fields for an easy open water evaluation dive.
You might also check out Dolphin Scuba in Sacramento (no affiliation). They are local to you. The prices Dolphin offered on DUI were so good it was easily worth the 3 hour drive from the SF peninsula when I purchased my DUI CF200 suit recently.

-Brad